The rapid prototyping technique is developed based on the concept of additive manufacturing technology. The major feature of this technique is the readiness of solid forming, and the ability of automatically and rapidly converting a design scheme with a complicated shape into 3-D models without the need of cutlery, molds, and jigs. Thus, this technique can greatly shorten the research and design cycle of the new product and reduce the developing cost. Moreover, the marketing timing of the new product and the one-time success rate can be guaranteed. This technique can provide a complete and convenient product design and communication tool for technicians and non-technicians such as the entrepreneurs and end users. Furthermore, this technique can significantly promote the competitiveness of the product and expedite the fast response to the market.
However, the control method for the stereolithography structure used by conventional rapid prototyping technique requires an input unit such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a button, and a display unit such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube monitor (CRT monitor). The display unit and the input unit are independent from each other and are separately mounted on the constructive base of the stereolithography structure. The input unit is used to allow the user to manipulate the structure and input information and messages, and control the operations of the stereolithography structure. The display unit is used to display the user interface consisted of texts. The user interface may include the function entries covering various messages and information of the stereolithography structure. However, as the display unit and the input unit are independently and separately mounted instead of jointly mounted in the same area, the user have to look at the user interface shown on the display unit first and then operate the input unit with reference to the display unit, such that the functions and messages of the display unit are executed or displayed, thereby completing the manipulation and the operation of the stereolithography structure.
More importantly, the conventional slicing method of the stereolithography structure employs topology to generate the sliced contour. As the input sequence of the grids is not standardized, the arrangement of the grids is not sequential. This would cause the tangents and tangential lines of the grid to be non-sequential. Hence, a large quantity of slice operations is required during the search process of the contour connection and grid connection. This would deteriorate the slice rate. When a discontinuous surface is existed, surfaces would be unlikely to be linked up with each other. Thus, the conventional slicing method can not be applied to objects with discontinuous surfaces. Also, the printing resolution of the conventional stereolithography structure is about 300×450 dot per inch (DPI). In this manner, the conventional stereolithography structure has the problem of insufficient resolution. More disadvantageously, the 3-D models formed thereby will be deviant from the expectation due to the incomplete topological slices. Even worse, the 3-D models can not be formed due to the incomplete topological slices.
Moreover, the stereolithography structure used in the conventional rapid prototyping technique usually requires two or more control computers to handle the internal driving operation, the internal computation, and the external operation. However, the communications and operation modes between the computers are conducted by transmitting the instructions and messages received by the external computers to the internal computers that are used to handle the internal driving operation and the internal computation. When the internal computers are executing computation and control operations, the external computers enters the idle state. When the computation is completed, the internal computers that are used to handle the internal driving operation and the internal computation transmit the data to the external computers, such that the external computers can output data and display information. Under this condition, the internal computers that are used to handle the internal driving operation and the internal computation will enter the idle state. Such interlaced operation mode will cause the intermittent idling of the computers, which will be time-wasting and cost-inefficient as the electricity is squandered. Also, such operation mode will make the user operation more complicated and increase the manpower cost.
Besides, the data transmission interface used between the conventional control computers is the conventional RS-232 serial port with a maximum transmission rate of 20 kbps. As is well known in the art, conventional RS-232 serial port is not allowed to be hot swapped or hot plugged, which is prone to damage the internal components of the stereolithography structure. More disadvantageously, the anti-noise effect of the conventional RS-232 serial port is quite bad, which will cause the interlaced idling time and waiting time between the computers to be prolonged. If the slicing model of the stereolithography structure is quite complicated, the external computers will be idled for a long time, even worse the external computers will be idled for more than one day. Also, the conventional 3-D rapid prototyping apparatus only support one kind of transmission interface, such as RS-232, Ethernet, and USB. A single transmission interface can not satisfy all kinds of office users. For example, the selection of transmission interface by an individual user and the selection of transmission interface by an office user are different. If the transmission interface of the rapid prototyping apparatus can not meet the user's printing environment, the versatility of the rapid prototyping apparatus will be discounted. Also, the conventional 3-D rapid prototyping apparatus can be used to accomplish the printing task by default embedded control computer or add-on control computer. If such default control computers are scarce, the user can not proceed with the printing job. Such embedded or add-on control computers will increase the volume of the rapid prototyping apparatus and increase the cost of the control computers. Also, the troubleshooting of the rapid prototyping apparatus and the version update of the program have to be accomplished by the control computers, which means that the user can not operate the rapid prototyping apparatus without the control computers. Hence, the stability of the control computers will impose additional risks. The aforementioned problems will cause lots of tangible and intangible resource waste, and affect the ecological environment of the Earth. The invention can address these problems.